New Iran sanctions could hurt nuclear talks: Kerry

AP, WASHINGTON

Fri, Nov 15, 2013 - Page 7

US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Congress against hurting a historic opportunity for a nuclear pact with Iran by pressing ahead with new sanctions while international negotiators seek to prevent Tehran from being able to assemble an atomic weapons arsenal.

Kerry said on Wednesday the US and other world powers are united behind an offer they presented to Iranian negotiators in Geneva last week. However, he said new action now from US lawmakers could shatter an international coalition made up of countries with interests as divergent as France, Russia and China, endangering hopes for a peaceful end to the decade-long nuclear standoff with the Islamic republic.

The countries worry that Tehran is trying to assemble an atomic weapons arsenal. Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful energy production and medical research.

“We put these sanctions in place in order to be able to put us in the strongest position possible to be able to negotiate. We now are negotiating,” Kerry told reporters ahead of testifying before the Senate Banking Committee. “And the risk is that if Congress were to unilaterally move to raise sanctions, it could break faith in those negotiations, and actually stop them and break them apart.”

With nuclear negotiations set to resume in Switzerland next week, the Obama administration dispatched Kerry and US Vice President Joe Biden to the US Congress on Wednesday to seek more time for diplomacy.

Kerry said the negotiators should have a “few weeks” more to see if they can reach an agreement.

The request faces resistance from members of Congress determined to further squeeze the Iranian economy and wary of yielding any ground to Iran in the talks.

Kerry said the potential accord with Iran relates to a “tough proposal,” adding: “If it weren’t strong, why wouldn’t Iran have accepted it yet?”

“What we are asking everyone to do is calm down, look hard at what can be achieved and what the realities are. If this doesn’t work, we reserve the right to dial back the sanctions. I will be up here on the Hill, asking for increased sanctions, and we always reserve the military option,” Kerry said.

“We ought to be actually ratcheting up the sanctions against Iran,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “What the administration was promoting is something the Israelis think is a bad deal for them. It’s pretty clear the Sunni Arab allies of ours also think it’s a bad deal. Looking at it strictly from an American point of view, I think it’s a bad deal as well.”

The new sanctions were overwhelmingly approved by the Republican-led House in July. The legislation blacklisted Iran’s mining and construction sectors and committed the US to the goal of eliminating all Iranian oil exports worldwide by 2015.

If the US Senate Banking Committee continues pushing off its parallel bill, lawmakers could attach it to a Senate defense bill which could come up for debate as early as yesterday.